Determining the exact location of a receiver (e.g., a mobile phone) in an environment can be quite challenging, especially when the receiver is located in an urban environment, or is located within a building. In particular, imprecise estimates of the receiver's altitude may have “life or death” consequences for the user. An imprecise estimate of a receiver's altitude can delay emergency personnel response times. In less dire situations, imprecise estimates of the receiver's altitude can negatively impact navigation applications by sending a user to the wrong floor of a building.
An estimate of a receiver's altitude can be determined using a pressure measured at the receiver and a normalized reference pressure (“reference pressure”) corresponding to a reference altitude, among other inputs, as is known in the art. The reference pressure can be determined using pressure and temperature measurements collected from sensors at a transmitter in the service area of the receiver. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the estimated altitude can be negatively impacted by heating of the transmitter, such that temperature measurements made at the transmitter diverge from the true ambient temperature in the vicinity of the transmitter.
Thus, solutions are needed to improve an estimated altitude of a receiver by mitigating the effects of transmitter heating. Different systems and methods for improving an estimated altitude of a receiver by mitigating the effects of transmitter heating are described in the disclosure that follows.